Australian authorities called on thousands of people to evacuate their homes in Sydney on Sunday, in light of torrential rains in the country’s largest city.
Authorities said they had issued 18 evacuation orders for western Sydney, an area inundated by massive flooding in March.
“It is a life-threatening emergency,” New South Wales Minister of Emergency Services Stephanie Cook told AFP.
The minister described the floods as “rapidly developing”, calling on citizens to prepare “to evacuate their homes within a short time.”
Camden, a suburb southwest of Sydney, home to more than 100,000 people, has seen shops and a gas station inundated with flood waters.
The minister asked parents who live along 500 km of the east coast of Australia, both north and south of Sydney, to consider canceling their school holiday travel plans due to the weather.
Australia is suffering the worst effects of climate change, as droughts, deadly bushfires, bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and floods have increased in frequency and intensity as global weather patterns change.
In March, flooding on the east coast caused by violent storms devastated western Sydney, killing 20 people.
Australia asks thousands of Sydney residents to evacuate their homes
